History of the Internet - Report Example

History of the Internet Introduction Considering the opinions of experts, it may be easy to say that the internet begins as soon as individuals try to figure out methods for communicating over a distance. However, while smoke signals and even messenger pigeons could have carried out that function, the internet finds its roots in telecommunications that connect with carrying electrical signals from one point to another. However, it must be noted that the internet itself is a recent phenomenon even though it has ballooned with time to immense proportions. While the present state of the internet itself is an interesting topic, its history and the direction taken towards its development remains equally interesting. Ancient History The history of the internet appears to have begun in In 1858, where Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper covered the story concerning the laying of the transatlantic cable. Once the laying of this cable was complete, it was easy to say that the Atlantic Ocean had been more or less erased as a communication barrier between the old world and the new. Of course, the cable did not bring Europe closer to America in physical terms but just as the internet allows the transfer of large amounts of information from one point to another, the transatlantic cable did the same for its time. That was perhaps the first example of modern technology being said used to negate such large geographical distances. Certainly the telegraph existed long before that since the telegraph had been invented by Joseph Henry in 1830. While the language of the internet today may be HTML, Samuel Morse first used his Morse code to send meaningful words through electronic means. In fact, only in 1843, the first American telegraph long distance line was ordered to be put between the cities of Washington and Baltimore to cover a distance of 40 miles once this line became operational the first message to be sent electronically from one city to another was a quote from the bible that said, “What hath God Wrought?” (Bellis, 2005). The Business Angle This rudimentary internet by today’s standard was the height of technology at the time and in the next few years; lines were laid down from Philadelphia to New York. In 1861, Western Union completed the line called the transcontinental telegraph line since that ran along the transcontinental railway to provide coast to coast communications (Bellis, 2005). Certainly not the internet but as the internet today is more of a business tool than anything else, companies were quick to realize the potential of rapid communications. Business could use this new medium of communication since money could now be ‘sent via the wire’ from one part of the country to the other. Offices located on one coast could easily communicate with those on the other edge of the country. In essence, along with electronic communications, electronic commerce had also started. The process went through a quantum leap in 1913 when Western Union developed the process of multiplexing that permitted eight simultaneous messages to go over one single line. While telex itself may be considered an ancient technology by today’s standard, it is less than 50 years old in actual terms since it was introduced in 1959 to allow point to point communications without the use of intermediaries (Bellis, 2005). Recent History Undoubtedly, other communication technologies such as the telephone existed side by side with others and all were considered essential for business and personal communications but for transferring text and images, the telegraph, telex and then fax became the best option for people. By the 1970s, telephones had become commonly used equipment for houses and businesses (Rowland, 1997). However, the coming of the internet that changed the perception of communications as much as telegraph had years ago. This change did not take place overnight since the first computers themselves were only made in the 60s. Their use in homes and offices only was made possible when companies such as Apple had produced personal computers for the hardware and others such as Microsoft had the software for these computers. The internet itself started as a military project since the military needed to have several different lines of communication to make sure that messages could be transferred from one point to the other if communication lines had failed. Thus the first network for computers was created for the military and then the same was replicated by educational institutes around America to share data. The data was simple text sent over modems connected to telephone lines but with time, the internet evolved to a point where images could be compressed and easily transferred. From images the users of the net went to transfer sounds and today even video is not a problem for the speeds of the internet have only increased. However, it must be noted that long before the common use of computer technology and the prevalence of the internet, people had become used to things such as car phones and even some portable phones (Rowland, 1997). In fact, Rowland (1997) argues that even before the mobility and the telecommuting offered by the internet, the mobile phone could have offered a worker the chance to work from any place in the world. In essence, a laptop computer today which is combined with a mobile phone to obtain internet access can allow an individual to not only become productive anywhere, it can also eliminate the idea of the office itself. What the telegraph did for geographical boundaries, the modern internet can do for people at large. The internet growth seen in the 90s was directly connected to the growth of companies which had founded their businesses on the net (Rowland, 1997). In fact, some companies which are considered to be the giants of the economy today may not have even existed had it not been for the internet, Amazon.com, ebay.com and even Dell.com are amongst the many examples which come to mind as companies that largely exist due to the internet. Just a decade ago, it was considered that the internet may actually remove the need for offices, skyscrapers and even commuting as individuals would only need a link to the net to work in the future. The development of the internet comes through the creation of computer networks that allow communications between computers and servers located around the world. Without these networks, the internet would be little more than an idea and distributed computing could never happen. Networks were further developed in the 90s to allow the use of server farms or cluster computing that can combine the power of different processors as they work on a single problem Similarly the tremendous amount of data which is stored on the internet is also distributed across computers that may be thousands of miles apart in the real world yet connected to each other in seconds. While the internet seems to have developed at the speed of light, it is important to note that the internet is a set of technologies that work together. The development and the history of the internet is also dependent on the underlying support systems based on the hardware, software as well as communication protocols that had to be created as a part of the internet that allowed computers to communicate. Not only did the internet develop with them, they also helped the internet to become more useful and more acceptable to people who interacted with these tools. Recent Developments This becomes an important aspect of the history of the internet since it seems that the history of the internet is still being written on a daily basis. A quick look around where we live shows us things which have just come up in living memory such as hotspots, fee wifi and mobile phone service on flights. What used to be considered a luxury i.e. hotel rooms offering high-speed internet access for the business travelers may now be considered a necessity. The prevalence of modern technology has come to such a point that there are etiquette books which teach people how to handle phone calls in various social situations the presence of others and even rules for answering emails in a polite fashion. The social aspects of the internet are only one measure of where the internet is going since the future of the internet is a bight one where developments, discoveries and new methods are coming up on a daily basis. As more devices and more tools become connected with the internet, it is only logical to assume that there will be novel means of not only using the internet as a medium of communication but also as a tool for government and a tool for bringing greater social development to the people. It remains for future historians to not only judge the importance of the internet but also to fully understand how it changed the world we live in. Works Cited FTL Design. 2006, ‘History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy’ [Online] Available at: http://www.atlantic-cable.com/Article/1858Leslies/index.htm Rowland, W. 1997, The Sprit of the Web: The Age of Information from Telegraph to the Internet, Somerville. Bellis, M. 2005, ‘The History of Communication’, [Online] Available at: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_history_of_communication.htm Word Count: 1,536 Read More